Barclay brothers delay Sark island sparkling wine launch

The billionaire Barclay brothers have delayed launching a sparkling wine produced on the island of Sark in the English Channel, but said the move was is due to 'quality potential' rather than any problems.

Twins Sir David and Frederick Barclay own around 100 hectares of land on Sark, a car free island off the coast of Normandy that describes itself as the ‘jewel’ of the Channel Islands.

The pair, who also own the Daily Telegraph newspaper and the Ritz London, were expected to launch a Sark sparkling wine next year. But, the first bottles are now not expected to hit the market until 2018.

‘The quality signs are extremely good,’ consultant Alain Raynaud, who has worked on the project since its inception in 2011, told Decanter.com.

‘The unusual blend of mainly Chardonnay and Savagnin grapes, together with the excellent acidity levels and interest of the base wine, mean I am fully convinced that we have excellent quality potential. We are now intending to give the wine a full five years of ageing sur latte to ensure it can delivery the complexity that it promises.’

For English Wine Week, we’ve got all the need to know facts and numbers on the English wine industry in…

Oliver Hartley

There used to be a cider press there but suspect the apples suffered the same difficulties….lack of ripeness. I remember drinking Sark cider as a teenager and it was…um…very dry!

Oliver Hartley

I’m usually hugely in favour of new planting. However, in this case it has been at the expense of local agriculture meaning that those living on the island have to import more food at a greater cost, rather than produce their own. This is a vanity project and one that brings little or no benefit to the islanders. Shame.

Gerald Duke

A pity the same stock pictures of the Barclay town’s is always trotted out. How about one of them pruning the vines or a spot of weeding

Antonia Stark

Hahahahaha. Needs more time in the bottle. More like needs more time on the vine! Those reedy plants can’t have produced much on the wet windswept slopes. They should have tried cider, but then again, it’s not about the wine, is it?

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Get news, tastings, travel and competitions straight to your inbox…

Your email address:

By submitting your details, you will also receive emails from Time Inc. UK, publisher of Decanter and other iconic brands about its goods and services, and those of its carefully selected third parties. Please tick here if you’d prefer not to hear about:

Time Inc.'s goods & services, including all the latest news, great deals and offers